I wish it was easy to quit smoking, and I've tried. But I'm pragmatic when it comes to that - so I guess I haven't really tried.

Gaming is another thing entirely. I don't feel an irresistable urge to pick up a controller (like I used to), and thinking of gaming doesn't make me want to play.

I'm selling my Dreamcast because I need money for other stuff, and because I don't need sh*t lying around. I feel no need to elaborate further. I haven't touched it in ages and that's reason enough I think. If it wasn't already years ago, my history with consoles is now definately over. So, I might as well declare that I'm done with consoles, for good. (I could never live with the idea of never playing something on the computer again, and so many people have computers today. But the way I see it consoles are a niche, and console gaming has really gone downhill over the last years - yeah I've seen the new games and I'm not impressed. I guess that some readers would want me to go into detail about how I feel that console gaming has gone worse over the last years, but I'm not in the mood to make an in-depth analysis or anything of the sort.)

I guess this whole thing might seem extreme or something - is it necessary to call it quits? -, and I'm not asking anyone to follow in my footsteps. But this blog post shall be a reminder to myself that I've decided to move on, and a message to everyone out here that I have, in fact, moved on. I did already, years ago, as I said. It is now "official", if you will.

Game over. The end.

Don't be fooled if you still see me reviewing or rating older games here from time to time. I'm no longer into consoles; I have no consoles, I check no news related to console gaming, I don't play new console games and I'm looking forward to no new games at all.

Also, to all the people who keep sending me union invitations: Please don't. I have neither the time nor the interest. If I wanted to join a union I would search for it and ask to join it myself.

I haven't been around alot lately, and I probably won't be in the future either. So don't expect me to write reviews or anything. There are too many games I could writes reviews for, and I intended to start out with the NES this summer - well, I did. But I haven't added anything new since, as you can probably see for yourself.

I've only been playing less and less games recently. But this is actually something that goes years back: I started feeling that playing games didn't give me as much enjoyment about 3 years ago or so. A game has to be really special for me today, if I'm going to spend time playing it. Perhaps that's why I tend to look back at my younger years - when the SNES, Mega Drive, Amiga, Neo Geo, etc. were the big names - as the peak of gaming. I believe I'm somewhat ignorant to the fact that there are great games released today, such as Call of Duty 4, which I recently checked out. Sure, it didn't feel as original as the original - uhh, that sounded a bit strange didn't it?; I don't feel that it lives up to the original Call of Duty with the United Offensive expansion. But it's still a great game - even though I don't agree with the political aspect of it. It is the first time in a long while anyway, that I've been genuinely excited about a game. I would probably have let it go unnoticed if it wasn't for the fact that I used to play Call of Duty + United Offensive online over a quite long period of time back when the game was still fairly recent, and enjoyed it more than I've enjoyed most games as an adult.

And I keep wondering: Have I come to expect too much of games? - I ain't taking whatever trash I find. Or am I just too old and boring? - Ironically, a lot of games seem boring to me. Or have I reverted back to the state of the casual gamer? - I sure don't feel too hardcore anymore. Back in the day, on the other hand...

Yet, I never allow myself to glorify the gaming of the past. I give credit where credit is due. If anything, I am critical of all things gaming, both of the past and of today. And while I think that's a good thing, I'm not sure if I'll some day reach a point where I'm not excited about games at all. And then I won't know if it's because I've become fed up with gaming, or because the games that are coming out are bad/boring. Then my opinion might be of no value.

I'll bet that this is anything but your average post on a gaming website blog. And some of you may be thinking: "Why are you still here?" ... The only answer I can come up with is that gaming has been a large part of my life and it would feel strange to just let go of it. Maybe I'm overly critical of myself now. I still play games. Just not as much as I used to, and certainly not just any game. But you know, one gets older, finds other interests, gets less free time, etc.

I haven't been active enough (and perhaps that's a good thing) but today it's three years since I registered at this site.

Should I celebrate?

After having spent quite some time on the GS forums (although not as much as some others) I have a little rant to make. Also, I'm tired of seeing and reading the same old blog post as soon as I come on here. I never liked it anyway as I was simply just running my mouth without really having anything to say. Coincidentally, this post is going to be about useless posts.

Straight up: There are too damn many posts on GS forums. Worse - people don't seem to use the search function on the boards, so you will see countless posts dealing with the same topic. Not a good idea if you want serious discussions in the forums - perhaps Gamespot doesn't want that, I don't know. All of you who have been to the forums trying to discuss things will know what I'm talking about. And I know what you're going to think: "GS forums suck - oh, heh, he just discovered". No, it's nothing new or anything; the forums have been that way since I joined Gamespot some years ago.

I find myself not wanting to discuss things, because I know that the thread will die soon enough, but the topic will still be revived through another thread a month, a week or even just a day later. The forums are used more or less as chat rooms - and I get the impression that the forums are laid out in such a way, inviting to this kind of posting behaviour. For instance, what is the point of having a post count? It motivates people to post merely for the sake of posting. I've seen people with 30000 posts - now, how many of those posts were oneliners I'm curious to know. Posts also eventually disappear completely, when they are old enough. The same old topics will be discussed all over again. And I thought the point with going to forums were to discuss things with people, come to conclusions about things and learn things - instead of just to chat. It seems I was wrong. I find myself stumbling upon topics that I have discussed pretty much in detail in older threads. Whenever the responses and counter arguments hold up for a while, the thread quickly starts to fade away, and just some hour later it will be lost and forgotten on page 248 (or whatever). Now that kills my motivation to post. I could just refer to my older posts and older threads as soon as something comes up that I have talked about already, and that I want to discuss further as long as I don't have to start all over from the beginning - which I have on occasions, but... uh. Screw it.

And: No GS, I don't believe that you're going to listen to what I say and take any of it into consideration. So therefore I'm just posting this in my blog to state my opinion, and to allow people who want to read rants such as these to find them easier. Actually, that's what I should do from now on whenever I'm going to say something that I want people to read (because most of the time I post things for people not to read them - duh!).

Now, this blog is not going to be about rants only, but that's certainly part of what it's going to be. So if you don't like it, go away. If you like it, stay tuned.

No! Wait! Don't go! I will talk about videogames too. I promise!!!11!exclamationpointexclamationpointetcetcadinfinitum